Change of heart

So I was all ready to cut into my Loulouthi for Elizabeth's Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along when I had a sudden change of heart. Love Loulouthi. Love Elizabeth's design. But for some reason, the two together...I guess I lost that lovin feeling.

See? I was really ready to cut! I've been unsure of my ability to make the large-scale prints work, and as I was pressing the fabric, I just panicked.


New plan! I'm going to use my FQs of Pat Bravo's Paradise, minus then dark browns and plus a few FQs from my stash. I'm thinking Kona Ash for the background. (Or Snow? Thoughts?)

Don't feel sad for my Loulouthi. I'm sure it will find its quilty home soon.

Say hello to my little friend.

There seems to be a Baby boom going on these days.

I'll be back with more once I've had a chance to try out this little guy.

(And, of course, I'll be giving one away!)

WIP Wednesday

Gotta say--WIP Wednesday is helping me stay on track with my crafty goals. Here's what I've been working on.



Finished:

Pool Robe


pattern from Made

June block for Sew Beautiful Bee



House block for Cara

Ongoing projects:

Central Park Quilts


Quilt top #1 is complete. I added a border in the purple cobblestone print.


43 out of 63 blocks finished for quilt #2. Almost there!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt (Long arm? Hand quilt?)

To do:
Tree Quilts
headbands for my sister
Cape for Luke
Cara's House Block for Sew Beautiful Bee
Modern Crosses wall quilt.
Deer quilt
Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along (starts June 23)

Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is working on!

Little pink house

This month, the members of the Sew Beautiful Bee are helping Cara make blocks for a house quilt, which she's giving to a family with a baby in the NICU. Here's my contribution. It's located in a mushroom field not far from the airport.

Pool robe

I saw Dana's beach robe pattern yesterday and had one of those "must make one now" reactions. Luke is spending lots of time at the pool, so i knew he'd put it to good use. One nap time and $6.99 later, and Luke had a robe of his very own.


(Warning: side effects include turning 3-year-olds into Kung Fu warriors.)


Dana's pattern is made from a beach towel, which is awfully smart. Also smart: the ties are sewn into the robe (cause I know we'd lose that thing before we got out of the car).


I had intended to make the hooded version, but the towel I bought wasn't quite big enough (and I ignored Dana's advice to buy two towels to be safe). Oh well. Still cute!


My bias tape is kind of sloppy. I might go with the store-bought version if I make it again.


It's a great pattern, and Luke really likes it (I suppose that goes without saying). Mom and son are both happy!


Note to Luke's pediatrician. I know you said we should try to keep him out of the pool until Monday if possible (swimmer's ear). But on a sunny, 95-degree Saturday, we decided it wasn't possible. As you can see, we feel really guilty about it!

WIP Wednesday!

Welcome back, Wednesday! Here's what I've been up to.



Finished:

Scrappy Scottie



June blocks for do. Good Stitches


Paula requested gray and green hourglass blocks.

June block for VIBees


We're helping Meghan make a man quilt for her husband, who is in the Army. She sent us some cool red and aqua fabrics. Her husband is Airborne, so I thought an airplane block would be cool. (tutorial from Badskirt)

Ongoing projects:

Central Park Quilts


54 out of 63 blocks complete for quilt #1. I hope to have a finished quilt top soon!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt (Long arm? Hand quilt?)

To do:
Tree Quilts
headbands for my sister
June blocks for do. Good Stitches
Cara's House Block for Sew Beautiful Bee
Modern Crosses wall quilt.
Meghan's block for VIBees
Deer quilt
Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along (starts June 23)

Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is working on!

Quilt backs!

Rebecca at Chasing Cottons is hosting a link up of quilt backs. I've seen posts by Angela, Lee, and Kati, so I figured I'd join the fun!

I love coming up with an idea for a quilt back (wrestling with the larger pieces of fabric...not so much). I've made quilts with just one fabric on the back, but I prefer a pieced back because it allows me to use up scraps and it's often more fun! When I make a pieced quilt back, I have two goals: 1. Try to somehow reference the front of the quilt and 2. Spend no money. Sometimes I'm more successful than others!

Here are some (okay, maybe all...) of my pieced quilt backs!


Sanctuary Slices back


Supernova back


Modern Sliced Scrappy back


Dirt bike back


Colorbrick back


Finn's quilt back


Pinwheel back


Scruffily back


Simple Abundance back


Arcadia back. Saved my favorite for last. I used up my stray honey bun strips for this one. I get a little misty every time I see Arcadia...

P.S. When I was looking back through my old blog posts, I was surprised to find out that I used to, like, read and cook and stuff! So weird. I was also a little surprised (and somewhat concerned) to find out that I've finished 13 quilts this year. My name is Katie, and I'm a quiltaholic...

Scrappy Scottie

I bookmarked this pattern (free! from Denyse Schmidt) a long time ago when there seemed to be a Scottie population boom on the internet. (See cute versions here and here.) But then I kind of forgot about them until I saw this version by Kirsten at Gemini Stitches. We have a birthday party for a 4-year-old girl tomorrow, and I figured this would be a great gift!


I grabbed scraps from my bin pretty much at random. The side panel is white flannel. I added button eyes and a pink velvet ribbon collar. Easy!


Wish me luck getting him away from this kid (who insists on calling it a donkey)!

Black, white, and red all over

Houndstooth, all finished up. This quilt is a gift for my neighbor who just graduated high school and will be going to the University of Alabama in the fall. (In case you're not an SEC football fan...Houndstooth is a thing at the University of Alabama.) You can see I opted not to fix my backwards blocks. I chose to take the advice of those of you who said it added character to the quilt (and thanks for that!).


I went with an all over stippling with white thread. (Kristie said black thread would be badass, and I know she's right...but I chickened out and went with the decidedly non-badass white.)


Black seemed like the only option for binding.


For the back, I went with this jumbo polka dot from Sugar and Spice by The Quilted Fish.


I took a photo of the backing fabric with a quarter for scale...because I love it when people take a picture with a quarter for scale.



The pattern is from V and Co. Vanessa's pattern is for a square baby quilt. I added some extra rows to make it a throw. I made it a little on the small side so it would be dorm room appropriate. I gave it to my neighbor tonight, and she loves it!

City Weekends Patchwork

I had 2 charm packs of City Weekend languishing in my stash, so I put them together to make this little quilt for Craft Hope Project 13. It's lovely fabric. I feel a little guilty for neglecting it!


I have lots of this yellow Flower Sugar print, so I put some to use as the back of this quilt.


Quilting? Loopy.


I love the range of colors in this line, but it made it hard to pick a binding fabric. I ended up getting this little print from JoAnn's (spoiling my effort to make this a 100% stash quilt).


My buddy approves.

I'm hoping to get a few more things together, and then it's off to Craft Hope!

A little stitchery

When I saw this pattern (designed by Kaye of Miss Print) I knew I wanted to make it for my friend Leah's sewing room. Her birthday is coming up, so I got to stitching.


I love the little tomato pincushion!

WIP Wednesday

Back in action! I had a great Memorial Day weekend, with more time at the pool than behind the sewing machine (I have the sunburn to prove it) but I made a bit of progress.



Finished:
hmm...nada

Ongoing projects:

City Weekends charm quilt for Craft Hope project 13


"Someone finish my binding!"

Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along with Don't Call Me Betsy




Of course I'm in! I'm excited about this one, and I'm thinking I may use it as my excuse to pick up some Loulouthi. Head to Elizabeth's blog for the details. She just announced it today, so there's plenty of time to join.



Completed tops awaiting quilting:


Houndstooth quilt
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt (Long arm? Hand quilt?)

To do:
June blocks for do. Good Stitches
Central Park quilts
Blankets for Craft Hope Project 13
Deer quilt


We're linking up at Elizabeth's this week, so head over to see what everyone is working on.

Yes!

Houndstooth quilt top...finished!



Of course, the blocks I sewed on backwards are screaming at me now.

Any thoughts on how I should quilt this??

(Pattern from V and Co)

Houndstooth in progress

I was hoping to have this quilt top finished this weekend, but it's proving--ahem--tedious.